surmise
Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidenceThought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.
» The police surmised that the victim told them the truth.
Meaning
2 senses(countable, uncountable)Thought, imagination, or conjecture, which may be based upon feeble or scanty evidence; suspicion; guess.
surmises of jealousy or of envy
This opinion, however, is merely a surmise, which may or may not be the case.
Vermutung, Mutmaßung
подозре́ниеpodozrénije, до́мыселdómysel, предположе́ниеpredpoložénije
(countable, uncountable)Reflection; thought; posit.
- a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence
Examples
4 sentencesThe police surmised that the victim told them the truth.
Those are the main facts of the case, stripped of all surmise, and stated as baldly as possible.
"What do you think of my theory?" "It is all surmise."
de„Was halten Sie von meiner Theorie?“ – „Es sind alles Hirngespinste.“ — raggione
Long before Darwin's theory of evolution, Buffon had surmised that species evolved very slowly under different material circumstances.
deLange vor Darwins Evolutionstheorie hatte Buffon vermutet, dass sich Arten unter unterschiedlichen Umständen langsam entwickelt haben. — Yorwba
Translations
4 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From Old French surmis, past participle of surmetre, surmettre (“to accuse”), from sur- (“From Old French surmis, past participle of surmetre, surmettre (“to accuse”), from sur- (“upon”) + metre (“to put”).
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Forms
plural: surmisesSynonyms
19 synonyms- a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence:guessconjecturesuppositionsurmisalspeculationhypothesis
Lessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable